


The Earth and Everything Else

by meteoricblue



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Does it count as MC death if the MC is the Earth, Iwaizumi Hajime space cop, M/M, Oikawa Tooru heritage conservator, Oikawa Tooru-centric, Oikawa's dad is dead, Other, Outer Space, Planet Destruction, Science Fiction, The Earth is dying, no beta we die like planets, no one else dies only the Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29776965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteoricblue/pseuds/meteoricblue
Summary: The Solar System crumbles and Oikawa Tooru is not one to miss the sight of it for anything in the World.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Kudos: 5





	The Earth and Everything Else

**Author's Note:**

> This story exists thanks to my midnight paranoic panic about the end of the world. So I made it a fanfic instead, lmao

Oikawa Tooru would like to think of himself as a simple creature ー even if he knows he isn't.

  
By any definition or rumor that plagues both historical conservators' and Space Force gossip circles, Oikawa Tooru loves two things: the Earth and every single other thing in the Universe; and they would be right. Tooru has never been a man to settle for anything else but the World.

For that very reason, he sips his coffee carefully, looking over mountains of papers, the only artifacts still remaining on the surface of Earth. Tooru browses through them bored, wincing everytime the ground beneath his feet makes him lose the line. The ground is unsteady, but it is a small price to pay that comes with the only remaining human base. Situated right on the North Pole, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean it was the only place still inhabitable on Earth.

After the moist greenhouse happened, together with the axis shift that sent Antarctica to the equator and Africa to the north, the climate changes were drasticーanimals and habitats went into extinction or adapted. Now, the temperature at the surface of Earth can reach up to 1000 degrees Celsius at the equator and the Sun's luminosity has surpassed the 60% point the people from 4 billion years ago had set. It is impossible for any being to sit outside without protective suits and eyewearーtheir retinas alone would burn in minutes.

Tooru heard plenty of stories. 

He read intrigued through digital archives upon archives of Wikipedia, Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter from the early 2000s, 24 million years before the first modern extinction; how different life on Earth used to be. 

Tooru's curiosity always ate at his very being, raised on Tera, Canis Major Galaxy, the first planet the humans colonizedーbedtime stories of humans, of astronauts and rockets, Einstein and the time, Paris and Tokyo, Hollywood, egyptian pyramids, kangaroos and coral reefs were all Tooru heard, fairy tales of mythical, sacred lands.

Ever since, starry eyed and with loose pockets; loose enough to pile up dreams upon dreams inside themー Tooru wanted to see _'home'_ with his very eyes.

And what he sawーwas ruin, and his dad's own passing.

Tooru sees in the reflection of his metal coffee cup his new babysitter, Space Force captain and commander of the "Libera" Spaceship. He was leaning against the wall, close to the door, arms crossed and a frown that didn't suggest anything but a strident " _do not disturb_ " aura; too bad for him, though. It happened that Oikawa Tooru loved exactly these types of men. Men like Iwaizumi Hajime, with stoic stares in his eyes and muscles for the ages were always easy to rile up, get honest answers out of them by the dozen; the fact that he could probably split Tooru in half, was nothing if not an added bonus to being such an eye candy.

"Say Iwa-chanー"

"It's _Iwaizumi_."

"So, Iwa-chan," Tooru presses, muffling a smirk into his cup, acting more casual than he was actually feeling, all just to see the lovely burst of emotions flowing across Iwaizumi's face, "Are you going to spend all day there, pretending to be a cheaply built robot, or are you going to help a bit?" He turns enough to spot the growing scowl on this hot babysitter's face.

"What would I even do? I don't speak any of these languages."

"You do know English," he points Iwaizumi with a flicker of his wrist to a pile of papers, "Start there."

"What even is the point of this?" Iwaizumi grumbles.

Tooru sighs and drops his stack. "The Earth is dying, Iwaizumi. We have to save as much as we can."

Iwaizumi makes a noncommittal noise, soon enough Tooru hears his stack of papers rustling, "It's just papers."

"They're documents. Court documents, police documents, children's homework and school projects, corporate documents. It's a life that is dying, Iwa-chan."

A pause rests between them, neither one of them saying anything more than scattered _'thank yous'_ and _'please'_ when it came to rounds of coffee refills. On one side, Tooru does understand Iwaizumi's frustration, he hadn't spent his life saving the last bits of history the Earth had builtー on the other side, that is exactly Tooru's life. A historian mother who is teaching the human colonies about the wonders of their civilisation, and a father, a historic conservator just like him, who caught his death in the greatest conservation move the world had seenーthe displacement of the Giza pyramids to Tera. It was a horrid operation, although successful, the exposure to the scorching sun had claimed one too many lives.

"Oikawa," Iwaizumi starts, considerably more stiff than before, "You can't save everything, you know?"

"I know," Oikawa says grimly, a memory of his father drifts to ashes across his mind, "That doesn't mean I won't at least try."

A knock comes loudly on the door, the rhythm of the Looney Tunes theme song doesn't go unheard by Tooru's sharp knowledge of Earth trivia; both his and Iwaizumi's stares shuffle to the two newcomers. Second and third in commandーin no particular order, Hanamaki Takahiro and Matsukawa Issei of the "Libera" spaceship pile into the room with small cordial smiles.

"Mattsun! Makki! What brings you to the realm of paper towers?" Tooru blinks innocently at them, despite Iwaizumi's scoff and eye rollーdangerous, dangerous man already figuring out Tooru's cues; but he doesn't let himself be deterred. Tooru plans mischievously in his head how to convince themーor blackmail them if needed, into helping.

"Hi, Oikawa," Hanamaki raises an eyebrow at Tooru's cheerful presence but doesn't comment. 

Mattsun instead just sighs and turns towards Iwaizumi. "Iwa, we're done stocking the artifacts and with the maintenance. We're good to go when you are."

"Ok, gotー"

"Perfect!" Tooru cries and claps twice, once again pointing at the English pile, "Help Iwa-chan go to those papers before his poor brain falls off, then we're good to go," he blows them a kiss and winks in Iwaizumi's direction when a tirade of curses spew out of his mouth. 

"No need to use such hurtful words Iwa-chan, _oh my_!"

"' _Hurtful'_ would imply them actually hurting, Shittykawa. I could insult you daily for five years and I wouldn't carve _a dent_ into your ego."

Hanamaki lifts his eyes from between the papers with a loud exhale, "Can we finish here already? I'd rather not be on Earth when the Sun swallows it whole, _please. Thank you."_

And truth be told, twelve hours later, through the last round of painful triage, they select the last three boxes to leave Earth.

"Ok," Iwaizumi groans, stretching on his chair, "Makki, get everyone onto positions. I'd rather leap from here before we're forced to go lightspeed and lose five years on nothing."

"Got it."

"Wait, wait, Iwa-chan."

"What now?" Iwaizumi says exasperated, turning with raised eyebrows towards Tooru's frantic hand waving.

"Can we leap near Neptune or Pluto? I'd like to see the end," he asks seriously, staring the captain dead in the eyes with a rare moment of sincerity.

"Of course you'd want to see the ending," Iwaizumi mutters, gaze fixed on the ceiling, "You're a massive masochistic prick, aren't you?"

Tooru smiles kindly, a bitter pinch beneath his eyesー one single look in his direction, enough to see the unusual concern hidden in Iwaizumi's green orbs, "I wouldn't be here otherwise, now, would I?"

Iwaizumi sighs and passes to squeeze his shoulder once before nodding and heading off towards his ship.

Tooru leans back and stares around the monotonous room, no windows and only cheap old neons to light it. He wishes he could have seen the day sky properly; the night sky was mystifying. The edge of the Milky Way was prominent, protruding between waves of stars, cleaving the sky in half in purple and yellow tinted clouds. The Earth had no more light pollution of any kind, everything was crystal clear. Tooru could have spent a lifetime staring at it; if only this had been his home.

"Hey," a familiar voice comes from the door.

"What brings you back, Mattsun?" Tooru hums, softly spinning in the chair, looking at everything left that was going to get swallowed whole and disappear forever. He grabs his mug off the desk, spinning with it together, head tilted to the artificial light. 

Mattsun breathes steady, until he doesn't, "Are you sure you want to see it gone? The Earth?"

Tooru puts his feet on the ground, stopping his chair in place to glance at Mattsun's usual bored but nonetheless concerned stance, and laughs.

"I need to do this. I couldn'tーsay goodbye when my father was gone, but nowーit's weird, but I think it will bring me a little bit of closure."

Mattsun crosses his arms and looks at him, searching; Tooru doesn't know for what, eventually his crossed arms drop, shoulders detense. With a small wave he leaves the room, silence eating at Tooru's life once more.

Tooru stays for a minute more, chair screeching on every spin, low hums, coffee now empty. He closes his eyes.

Tooru puts his empty mug on the desk, stands up, and leaves all he couldn't save for the world to ruin.

* * *

Due to the high temperatures outside, even the spaceship resides beneath the water, in a sealed off hangar. 

The outline of the ship was quite different. In white and gray with accents of turquoise, it was a peculiar ship by any Space Force standards. The shape was standard, pointed nose, and a superior level on topーfor the control room, long and with wings on each side, almost similar to a plane's but situated lower, towards the engines. 

Last Tooru heard, the ship got its infamous turquoise paint when the crew got stranded on the planet Aoba at the edge of Andromeda Galaxy. It was a planet that hadn't been visited before and the civilization there thought for a while they were gods; so the people gifted them a sort of impenetrable, sacred paint made from a metal unique to Aoba. Tooru had seen the turquoise rock, _seijoh,_ only once in his life. It was at a geology event his friend, Tetsu, dragged him to. It was truly vividly colored as it cut clean through a diamond with minimal force. 

It takes a while until Tooru finally manages to cross from the front of the ship to its tail, where the entrance trap rests lowered, wide open still, despite the lack of human presence. Tooru sees Iwaizumi's staff already good for departure inside, only Kindaichi still scurries around with a tiny wheeled robot and a holographic computer, doing the last checkups on the exterior. Tooru waves at him. Kindaichi startles but comes to enter inside the ship together. 

"Hello Oikawa-san," he says timidly, "Did the triage go well?"

"Nope," Tooru popps the word cheerfully, despite the shocked look on poor Kindaichi's face, "It was awful! Two entire days for only three boxes. Well," he continues with a small shrug, "I suppose it could've been worse. Like that time I had to go through a full library worth of french erotica to triage it, then scan everything else that didn't make the cut."

"Oh," Kindaichi looks at him with wide eyes.

"Yes," Tooru continues dramatically, "And I got to admit the ancient french know their stuff about erotica; _although_ don't know how much I would recommend de Sade, but if you're interested in the history of sado-masochism it's eye openー,"

"Oikawa," Iwaizumi's voice booms from the control room, "Stop harassing my crew and start buckling up. We're ready to undock."

Tooru grumbles but moves with a wicked smile towards the control room, to his seat right behind Iwaizumi's and on Yahaba's left, who keeps an eye on the engine through his holographic computer.

"Tera, this is Libera Zero Alpha. We're departing Earth," Iwaizumi announces over the communications system, and soon enough an answer booms over the audio system.

_"Libera, this is Tera Main, roger that. Safe leaping on your journey. Over to you."_

They depart during the polar night while it is still cold enough not to melt the ship; the human base slowly lifts them above water, opening up wide once the stars are the only thing above. Libera propulsates almost instantaneously and leaves the Earth's fragile atmosphere in a burst of speed, gravity pulling them back weakly, until it doesn't. The closest thing ancient civilisations had to this were old primitive planes, a furtive thought passes through Tooru's head for merely a minute as the vibrating ship rushes through the orbit, heading for the Moon.

Once near the Moon, the ship leaps through the space gap and they're out the seam of time, between Neptune's moons, close to Triton in less than a blink of an eye. 

The only thing left? The painful stretch of time they must now spend waiting.

Iwaizumi sighs and congratulates his team, he turns for a single side glance back, Tooru already smiling kindly to his tensed figure. Around them, everyone is unbuckling, stretching from the uncomfortable gravitational ripples and the peculiar shivering effect space gaps have on human bones; all waiting for the world to change. It could take as less as a Neptune day or as long as two Earth days until the Sun finally reaches its limit of an approximately 67% luminosity.

"The Sun is at sixty-five percent," Kunimi reports from his desk. It shouldn't be long from now, two or three percent more and everything will be over, Tooru easily concludes, tightening his grip around his knees.

"How are the gravitational waves looking?" Matsukawa asks, eye pointed on the left side crew, Kunimi and Watari who monitor the external forces, this time Watari shakes his head.

"We should expect some turbulence but if we hide behind Triton we should be fine."

Iwaizumi this time kicks into move, once all knowledge was acquired, establishing contact with headquarters.

"Tera, this is Libera Zero Alpha, we are on standby near Triton, Milky Way. Monitoring the Solar System until Doom."

_"Libera, this is Tera Main. All right. Keep recordings of the data and visual footage."_

"Tera, Libera Zero Alpha, will comply."

Tooru is a bit amused, how even four billion years, this simple system hasn't changed. Even if communications got better and the frequencies more stable, secure and individual, the ancient relic of the " _radio system_ " is still the most effective code humanity has managed to createーeven at such a primitive time for technology. _The radio_ now is just an ancient word, a story told in children's museums about the evolution of telecommunication even if the system persisted through the dawn of time.

Eventually, the last belt unbuckles with a sigh. It was Iwaizumi's. Tooru doesn't hesitate to jump out of his seat to nag him around, _cute_ frowns and tiny smiles sometimes slipping through on his face. Tooru smiles brightly, dragging him to the cafeteria.

* * *

It was on the second Neptunian day, 34 hours since they settled around Neptune's orbit, that a kid burst hurried into the cafeteria like a star collision had occurred in front of his eyes.

"It started!" Wide-eyed and frantic with loud breaths, he was barely a kid Tooru doesn't even know the name of. When he barreled into the common area, people were already dropping their trays and food. Everyone stands up in less than a fraction of a moment, heading for the control room just as fast. 

Through the protective layers of the ship, the sun is still too bright. Iwaizumi orders protective glasses onto everyone almost immediately.

In bursts of red, the Sun seemingly grows, shaking the universe with it, slow vibrations beneath their feet. Tooru comes on Iwaizumi's side; he lets him hold onto his arm without protests, Tooru's fingers come tight, holding onto Iwaizumi or reality, in that moment he doesn't really know.

Mercury goes first. 

Like a ball rolling down, crashing into, swallowed by the lava. Venus is soon after, incandescent glows merging with each other, vivid red, furious at the world, wants to have it all.

The Earth doesn't go that easy, the Earth was never easy from the very start; as stubborn as one might expect, the Moon conceded first. Tooru stares, at everything his parents worked on and for, disappearing. He almost sobs, but he holds himself. Only a couple tears run astray, carving wet paths down his face, a bitter metallic feeling pulsating though his heart, ripping at his insides. Tooru takes a deep breath, blinks the pools away.

Then, the Earth breaks. 

It breaks in pieces, fragmenting in two large chunks and a couple smaller. First it's calm, then everyone gasps, seeing the liquid core of the Earth, swallowed hungrily in bits. It lasts for over half an hour or maybe an eternity. All of bated breaths and blinding lights, shaky waves and hugs no one thought they would relish. Tooru lets himself breathe. They're watching the end of their beginning, where they all started, a place now immortalized into legend rather than reality.

It was silent. 

The sun is shining. Jupiter continues spinning, like nothing had happened at all.

  
  


"Are youー" Iwaizumi stops, green tumultuous eyes chasing his own, tense, ready for what, Tooru doesn't know. He laughs instead, leaning into his shoulder. Tooru was surprisingly fine, akin to a weight lifted off his shoulders; looking where now is nothing, he still, somehow, has plenty of things to see.

"Concerned now, Iwa-chan?" Tooru smiles teasingly, voice a bit coarse; not missing the concern building on Iwaizumi's face, "I'm fine. I'm great really," he continues, softly tugging at his arm in reassurance, "I'm fine because while we don't have the Earth anymore, we still have everything else."

"I didn't think it would beー"

Tooru hums, "This sad?"

"This torturous. It deserved a peaceful death," Iwaizumi whispers the words slowly, for his ears to hear alone.

"It did. It really did. The Universe is ruthless like that," Tooru sighs, turning his eyes to everyone in the control room, one more sad than the other, turning to their posts with slumped shoulders.

"Hey, Oikawa."

"Yes, Iwa-chan?"

"We're," Iwaizumi says. Tooru sees him struggle around the words, curiosity is a spark that never quite left him; so he waits attentively, grasping at each word, "My team and I, we mostly deal with counterfeits and stolen goods. We could use an eye like yours on our missions," Iwaizumi continues, more sincere than Tooru had anticipated, "Historical artifacts always end up on the black market."

Tooru's eyes sparkle at Iwaizumi's sheepish stance and leans in to bump into his side, arms still crossed tight together. Tooru speaks only one language better than anyone else, and that would be mischief. He eyes Iwaizumi's figure that somehow looks more afraid by the minute and giggles. 

"Iwa-chan, before asking to spend my next couple of years with youーhow about you take me on a date first?"

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the events I described are somewhat supposed to happen, I took some liberties with space travelling and the details because well, science fiction, and I emphasized on the fiction more than science (which I have no tangible knowledge of lol)


End file.
